When the Smoke Clears
by Pawprint20
Summary: Charlie Weasley is home, back in London to join the Order and fight. Along the way he meets a girl that is going to change his life. Author's Note: I'm doing a rewrite of this story


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to JK Rowling. I'm just a huge fan, so nerd with me.**

Chapter One

Charlie Weasley was coming home. He'd been away from his family in London since he graduated from Hogwarts and left to study dragons. He really did love dragons and would be happy spending the rest of his life studying them, but with Voldemort's return he knew he had to fight with his family. He still couldn't believe Percy's betrayal when Dad sent the owl informing him. He knew Percy had always been an obnoxious git, but honestly, choosing to support a bloody moron like Fudge? How thick could you get. Charlie just left the administrative office at the dragon reserve, where he put in his resignation. He was going to miss being here with the dragons, but he would now be working undercover at Hogwarts. Dumbledore requested that he apply for the open position for Care of Magical Creatures, since Hagrid would be gone on an assignment for the Order for the foreseeable future. All in all, Charlie thought he could definitely put his knowledge of magical creatures to good use for the Order.

Charlie made it back to his cabin an hour before his portkey for London was supposed to leave. He made quick work of packing all his personal belongings by giving his wand a quick flick and watched as all of his things zoomed around him and packed themselves perfectly into his trunk. He looked over at his owl, Darcie, she was a Tawny owl and he consider her family. He realized he should probably clean her cage so mum wouldn't get on to him about not keeping things tidy when he got home. Pointing his wand at her cage, and said, "Scourgify."

"There you go Darcie, all clean and read for the portkey trip home." he said. She hooted at him and he took that to mean she was ready to go. With all of his things now packed up and cleaned, Charlie had thirty minutes to go say goodbye to his friends. He really didn't have normal friends at the dragon reservation, instead his friends consisted of the dragons themselves. Charlie headed to the Chinese Fireball pen. There sitting high on a roost was his favorite dragon. She was new and not even a year old yet, making her just about the size of a large horse. Charlie had been the one to retrieve her egg and was given the honor of naming her when she hatched. So her name was Seeker, since that had been the position Charlie played on the Gryffindor quidditch team. All the other dragon trainers had laughed, calling it a stupid name as Charlie asked the baby dragon if she liked the name Seeker. But Seek gave a purr and hissed at the other trainers which shut them up about laughing at her name.

Charlie whistled for Seeker to come down from her roost and she gave an excited roar and flew down to land beside him.

Charlie reached up to stroke her snout, "I'm really gonna miss you girl. You've been my best friend here, but it's time for me to leave."

Seeker gave a soft cry as if she knew what he was saying. Then she took her front paw and used one of her large talons to remove one of her beautiful, shiny red scales. She then presented it to him as if she were giving him a gift.

Charlie stood there in shock for a moment before reaching out and accepting this incredible gift. "I'll always love you Seek, thank you for this." He said.

Now it was time to go, his portkey would be leaving in five minutes. Charlie gathered all of his things including Darcie and grabbed the portkey and before he knew it, he felt that familiar and uncomfortable feeling of being jerked from his navel. He landed in the front yard of the Burrow and was greeted by all his Weasley family save for the obnoxious git who no longer lived there. Not that Charlie wanted to see him anyway, he'd probably beat him to a bloody pulp if he did.

"Charlie! Oh I've missed you so much!" cried his mum as she wrapped him up in a huge hug.

"Mum I've missed you too but I can't breathe, you're choking the life out of me." He wheezed out.

"Oh sorry dear." said Molly sheepishly as she released him so he could greet the rest of the family.

Then his dad, Arthur, came over saying, "Good to have you back home son." As Charlie gave him a hug. Then he proceeded to hug Ginny, Bill, Fred, George, Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

"Let's all go to the kitchen, dinner is almost ready. Then I want everyone to finish packing their trunks for Hogwarts tomorrow." said Molly. The rest of the Weasley children along with Hermione and Harry groaned at the thought of packing, but Charlie just grinned because his things were already packed. Bill helped Charlie bring his things inside and took them up to their room. He had to admit, it was nice rooming with his older brother again. Charlie made it up to their room in time to see Bill with a huge smile as he finished writing a letter and sent it off. He knew that look, Bill was writing to a girl and was about to get the mickey taken out of him for it by yours truly.

Clearing his throat loudly, Charlie walked on in and innocently asked, "So who was the letter to?"

"No one at all, just a friend." replied Bill a little too quickly.

"Does 'just a friend' have a name? Particularly a female name?" teased Charlie.

"Dammit Charlie, don't you dare tell mum!" threatened Bill. "You know she won't let it rest until she meets her." He continued on saying, "Before you ask, we are just friends. Acquaintances really, but she's beautiful and smart and so easy to talk with…" Bill trailed off to glare at Charlie, who had just fell off his bed laughing.

"Hahahaha oh merlin, you got it so bad!" laughed Charlie. "I've never seen you act this way about a girl! You're usually so calm and collected, but this girl has you falling all over the place! Wait you've avoided my question, what's her name?" asked Charlie.

Bill nervously scuffed the floor with his foot before saying, "Well, er, you see, um, her name is Katie Bell."

Charlie stood there in shock for a few seconds before finding his voice enough to say, "Ummm you mean Fred and George's friend Katie Bell? The girl that's their age and in their year and therefore, still in Hogwarts?!"

"Er, yea, that'd be her…" Bill said quietly. "But I swear we're just friends, she's still in school and with the war starting I don't know where it will go."

Charlie couldn't help but grin. Leave it to his oldest brother to fall for someone several years younger than him. He was honestly happy for him, he'd never seen Bill like this about a girl. But that didn't mean he couldn't tease him a bit first, after all what's a little brother for if not to aggravate their older brothers. "So robbing the cradle now, are we Bill?" teased Charlie.

"Shut it Charlie, it's not like that!" Bill said angrily as he collapsed back onto his bed. He sighed in frustration saying "Trust me I know how old she is and how old I am and I'm not going to do anything. We're just friends, but you gotta swear you won't tell Mum or Fred and George or anyone else for that matter!"

"I'm just thrilled that I get to meet her so soon! Do you think she takes Care of Magical Creatures?" asked Charlie mischievously.

Bill's face drained white, "Oh Merlin, don't you dare talk to her Charlie! I mean it, we're just friends!"

Charlie went over and sat next to his brother patting him on the shoulder and saying, "I'm just messing with you Bill. I'm really happy for you." They both sat there for a bit before Charlie spoke up, "So when's the wedding gonna be?" And before he could duck, Bill had charmed a pillow to fly right into his face making feathers explode everywhere as he fell to the floor. "Well I guess, I may have deserved that." laughed Charlie as he laid sprawled out on the floor, covered in feathers.

"You think?" snickered Bill.

Then they heard Mum yelling for everyone to assemble in the kitchen because dinner was ready. So they all trooped downstairs and tucked in to the table to eat. It was good to be surrounded with the familiar sounds of laughter and conversation from his family. At dinner, Charlie was surprised to see some of the Order there and was quite excited to speak with Nymphadora, even though she hit him for not calling her Tonks. It didn't take him long to realize that she definitely had a thing for the Order's very own, Remus Lupin. He'd have to make sure to tease her about that the first chance he got.

After dinner, everyone dispersed to their rooms to begin their packing. Since Charlie was already packed he decided to visit each of his siblings to talk and catch up while they packed their things. Fred and George showed him all of their new inventions for their joke shop but made him swear not to tell mum. Ginny told him about her life at Hogwarts and her friends including Harry, whom he was pretty sure she had a huge crush on but preferred to believe that she still thought boys were gross. And lastly, Ron asked him all about the dragons and they talked quidditch for a while before Mum came upstairs to make sure everyone was packed and ready to leave in the morning. Dumbledore had asked Charlie to ride on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow as an added safety precaution. He was quite excited to be back on the train, it had been 4 years since he last rode on it.

The next morning was a whirlwind of chaos. Everyone was running up and down the stairs gathering last minute things. Finally, all the Order members had arrived and everyone was ready to split into groups to arrive at the King's Cross Station.

Charlie thought Mad-eye was going to have an ever-loving fit when Sirius showed up in his animagus form, but other than that the arrival at the Hogwarts Express went rather smoothly. The twins disappeared onto the train as soon as they arrived on the platform.

"Oh Charlie, please do try to keep an eye on them, will you?" asked Mum.

Laughing, he said, "I'll do my best Mum."

With that, he, his siblings and their friends said goodbyes to his parents and he boarded the train again for the first time in 4 years.

Charlie walked through the train, looking for an empty compartment, until he finally found one. After stowing his luggage and Darcie on the luggage racks, he sat down with his Care of Magical Creatures textbook and lesson planner to begin planning out his first week of classes. The train had left the station and been steadily picking up speed, when the compartment door slid open. Charlie lifted his head up and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen looking like a scared little mouse. She looked so delicate with her pale skin and dark, chestnut-colored hair.

"Oh excuse me, I'm so sorry, I thought the compartment was empty. I'll go." said the girl as she turned to leave.

"Wait, you can stay, it's no problem!" responded Charlie. He didn't know why, but something about this girl seemed different and he wanted to know more about her.

The girl seemed to have an internal debate before stepping into the compartment with her trunk.

Charlie stood up to help her put her trunk up and introduce himself, "Hello, I'm Charlie Weasley."

"Oh, um, my name is Ever Caswell." she stammered.

"Well Miss Ever, it is nice to formally meet you!" smiled Charlie, as he put her trunk on the luggage rack and sat back down. She smiled shyly at him before reaching in her rucksack and pulling out an Ancient Runes text. Charlie was quickly realizing that he would have to be the one to ask questions if he wanted to talk to her at all. Lucky for him, he had no problem talking to new people, and in fact, he rather enjoyed it.

"So what year are you?" inquired Charlie.

"I'm a sixth year Ravenclaw." replied Ever.

"Ravenclaw, really? So I guess you're pretty smart then. I was in Gryffindor, myself. My whole family has always been there. Do you know any of my siblings?" he asked.

Ever had paused from her reading, "I don't really talk to a lot of people. I've heard of them, but I mostly spend my time studying."

"Why don't you talk to many people?"

"They don't talk to me. I don't have many friends." Ever blushed.

"Well then, that must change, I will be your first friend." declared Charlie.

Ever smiled for the first time since Charlie had met her and he was completely charmed by her beautiful smile, "How can we be friends if we've only just met, I barely know you?" she asked.

"It seems I need to give a more thorough introduction. My name is Charlie Weasley, the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor. I have been working on a dragon reserve for the last three years in Romania, but came back to teach at Hogwarts at the request of Professor Dumbledore. I love quidditch, I was captain of the Gryffindor team and I played seeker. Hmm what else…" smiled Charlie.

Ever smiled back, "Okay, I know more about you I guess, but now we have another problem. How can I be friends with my professor?"

Charlie faltered at Ever's question because from the moment he saw her, he had forgotten he was a Hogwarts professor. He honestly wasn't sure how he could be friends with her and still be her professor but he was damn well gonna do his best to make it happen without breaking any rules or crossing any lines.

"Well I'm not exactly sure, but I think we both could use a new friend." he said, "I've got it!

Ever jumped.

"Sorry, didn't mean to shout." laughed Charlie, but Ever held a look of fear in her eyes as if she was remembering something from her past.

"Ever, are you ok?" asked Charlie, concerned.

Ever's face returned to normal and she looked at Charlie, "What's this idea of yours?"

Charlie wasn't convinced that everything was okay, but if she didn't want to talk about it, then he'd let it go for now.

"We can be friends anytime we're not in class together!" said Charlie.

"Ok, I'll give this whole friends thing a shot I guess." murmured Ever.

Charlie stuck out his hand, saying "Friends?"

"Friends." said Ever, shaking his hand.

After agreeing to be friends, Ever went back to reading her Ancient Runes text. Charlie couldn't understand how she could stand it, ancient runes had always confused him to pieces. He guessed that was why she was the Ravenclaw and he was not. Charlie tried to focus on creating his lesson plans, but he just couldn't seem to quit watching Ever. She was so quiet, sitting there focused on her book. He noticed that when she was really concentrating, she would chew on her lip. She had such pretty eyes, a sparkling, light blue that seemed to light up whenever she smiled. He had been trying the whole rest of the train ride to keep a smile on her face because he just couldn't stand to see her sad. Already Charlie knew he was going to have a hell of a time drawing a line between "Professor Weasley" and "Charlie the friend". Somehow he knew that Ever was special and that this was the start of something.

 **Author's Note: I hope to make this a very long story, so stick with me. Please review and let me know what y'all think! Thanks!**


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